stevenz: Hopefully 2.3.4 won't be far off which is supposed to fix most of the battery issues. Not holding my breath though :)

2.3.4 should make a fair amount of difference. It fixes a bug that prevents apps from suspending properly, which causes them to use more battery than needed. Other phones are seeing big improvements with this fix.

In the 22 hours that my phone has been off the charger, my Android OS has used 1.5 hours of CPU, and WiFi Sharing has used 38 minutes. After the 2.3.4 firmware comes out, the OS should go down to under a minute, and sharing down to seconds. That alone will save several hours of battery life.

Be keen to hear from others if there is anything I have missed. Of course its all down to personal use etc as to what you freeze.

Update: This guy has quite the freeze list, looks a little over the top - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=14873342&postcount=2363

I've actually frozen the majority of the stuff he has, most of it is pretty useless. (ebook reader on a 4.3" screen isn't much fun). I've frozen Email as I use Gmail, I've no use for weather apps\widgets as the MetService in NZ is a useless waste of space, Software Update is useless with a custom firmware.

Basically, if you've no use for it, then freeze it. If you ever need it later you can just thaw it out.

I just noticed that the Cognition firmware has SIP support built in whereas Litening does not. This is useful to me, means I don't need a separate SIP app installed.

Also, I got the phone in NZ with the VNZ CSC. Is there any downside to flashing the KE7 firmware with XEU CSC and doing the *#272*IEMI#, reset to factory to change from the VNZ CSC to XEU? Will I be able to update via Kies or will I have to rely on Odin?

Just got a S2 from JB hifi.. Was thinking about rooting it. Is it worth rooting the phone? Are there any painless guides to rooting the SGSII online? Everything looks somewhat technical. Do custom roms make the phone faster?

I've also ordered a Rearth Ringke silicone/polycarb case, will post about it once it shows up.

Just got a S2 from JB hifi.. Was thinking about rooting it. Is it worth rooting the phone? Are there any painless guides to rooting the SGSII online? Everything looks somewhat technical. Do custom roms make the phone faster?

I've also ordered a Rearth Ringke silicone/polycarb case, will post about it once it shows up.

It's pretty straight forward. Have a good read around the XDA forums. Custom roms themselves might not neccessarily make the phone faster but they're usually pre-rooted which will allow you to freeze\uninstall apps that aren't required etc. I'm using Lite'ning ROM 1.4 and it's awesome. Along with titanium backup and Android Optimizer, you can really tweak what's running on your phone.